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The Gremlins got into the IT system and gave it. We're here now and everything's fine. So, do we have any other interest reference? No apologies if we see you this morning, Chair. Thank you. Are there any declarations of interest in items on the agenda? Minutes of last meeting. To confirm the minutes of decisions made at the meeting held on the 16th of April, we all had them. Do I have a proposal? Thank you, Councillor Anderson and Councillor Johnson. Thank you, I'll take that as a second. All those in favour? That's you now, Mr Chair. Thank you very much. I have heard of no items raised, but any scrutiny, have you? No, I'm received, Chair. Thank you. Right, so we move on then to item 6, financial outturn report. We are being asked to note the outturn position, consider the outturn position, approve the recommended reserve movements as in section 3.5.5. Notice the position at the end of the year treasury management report. The details of those recommendations are all in paragraph 1.2, numbered 1.21 to 1.24. Can I have a proposal and second so that we can go into debate, please? Councillor Johnson proposed, Councillor Anderson seconded, thank you. And are we all in agreement? Oh no, we're not voting on recommendations, we just want them proposed. Just creating everything. Sorry. Councillor Johnson, would you like to open the debate, please? Thank you, Chair. This report provides the outturn position for 23/24, but it's subject to any changes that may be needed as part of the finalisation of the statement of accounts and subsequent audit. It is effectively the end of year accounts for the Council for 2023/24 and it's important to remember it's a historical document which reflects the position as at the end of March as far as possible and should be read with that in mind. As has been said, the recommendations are paragraph 1.2, I won't read them out in detail as they've already been read. The key areas to note in the report are as follows. The outer position shows an overall forecast of underspend of 0.6 million compared to budget which largely relates to better investment income receipts of 1.4 million against the budget but is offset by the deficit position on the dedicated schools grant of 1.6 million. Section 3.5 and appendix A shows the position in greater detail, the table at 2.2 provides an overview of the financial performance. Our proactive approach to financial management through the year by senior management has meant that 0.7 million of savings planned for future years have been achieved early during 2023/24 alongside 1.2 million of one-off savings and 1.9 million of additional income. These include holding vacancies pending future retirement service delivery, planning application income and interest receipts income and more effective use of grant income. Most significant of those is the interest receipts. However, these savings have been offset by 3.1 million of other pressures or adverse variances that have materialized during the year such as expenditure on the high needs block of 1.6 million. Home to school transport of 0.8 million, road maintenance of 0.2 million, increasing supplier costs and complexity of care with adult services of 0.2 million and the costs of ensuring the safeguarding of children through the necessary use of more expensive high cost care placements and agency staffing which cost 0.2 million. The high needs block which is the most significant of these is covered later on pages 19 to 20 of the papers. This report provides an update on recommended reserve balances incorporating the underspend position of 0.7 million to mitigate risks and provide the ability to invest in our future for financial sustainability. I guess difficult to say. Our approach is to protect the council against an increasing risk profile. This has resulted in an additional 1.2 million transferring to the risk reserve. The most significant increase in risk recognized is from the out-term position on the dedicated schools grant funding where demand and resulting expenditure is outstripping the funding available. This is exacerbated by the current position in the adult care market where the recent closure of homes in the last 18 months particularly in the last quarter of 2023/24 is causing us concern. The updated position against the financial sustainability investment agreed within the finance update report at 30 September 23 shows that 70% of spend has been spent or committed to date. The positive impact of some of this spend is already being experienced such as the equipment in the council chamber which provides better audio and visual quality. We hope this enhances the democratic process and provides transparency within the benefit of the council's reputation. The level of strategic risk has remained high throughout 2023/24 particularly regarding the council's ability to recruit and retain staff members. The council has benefited financially from being able to deliver MTFS savings, medium-term financial strategy savings, early by holding vacancies. However, we are mindful of the level of turnover placing undue burdens on the remaining staff members. The council is making positive steps to reduce this risk through additional investment in staff-related initiatives and the development of a revised workforce strategy. We are planning to update the built environment and the tools provided staff to allow them to operate efficiently and effectively in a modern working environment. In summary, the 2020/2024 financial performance contributes to the overall financial sustainability of the council. However, financial sustainability is not achieved through a performance of single years alone but from the performance and decisions made over the medium to long term, hence the medium-term financial strategy. The additional budget pressures of 3.1 million mean that the council's operating environment remains challenging, especially in the context that 82% of the budget mitigations found in year were from one-off saving opportunities and interest receipt income, all of which are one-off and not recurring. To deliver financial sustainability, the council must develop effective options for permanent cost reductions and increases to income. I move the recommendations of 1.2. Thank you, Councillor Johnson. Colleagues, comments, please. Councillor Smith. Thank you, Chair. As the Portfolio Health and Children's Services, I'd like to make some comments on the report because as is pointed out, there are significant potential pressures on the budget in the future. If you look at pages 18, 19, and particularly paragraph 3.6.4, it talks about the dedicated schools grant. And just for those listening, the dedicated schools grant is the amount of money we get from the government, which basically the County Council passes on to the schools, but a certain amount of that is kept back to provide for children with significant educational needs and/or disabilities to provide for them. Now, as the report says, there's been a significant overspend of 1.6 million in 2023/24, but that now has doubled to nearly -- well, to 2.9 million. The main driver of this is the increase in what is called the Educational Health and Care Plans, the HCPs. These are to help children with significant educational problems. And they've risen from 197 in 2019 to 342 now, so an 85% increase. The main reasons for the increase in the HCPs is complex and due to a number of factors. Probably the main one is the act in 2014, the Children's Act, which gave parents rights, but also maybe better identification by parents and schools of the problems of children. There's also been a significant rise since the pandemic as well, which obviously had an effect, and another factor may be that inclusion into the mainstream setting of pupils with specific needs has not filtered down into practice consistently. Now, if nothing is done, as the table points out, on the present trajectory, the graph at 3.65 shows that this high-needs block will rise to 14.4 million. And the graph on page 20 estimates on this trajectory, the deficit will be greater -- become greater than all the general fund balances. So the council is trying to do something about it. We have what's called a Delivering Better Value Send Improvement Program, which aims to reduce this deficit. And Rutland County Council is the lead, along with Leicestershire and Leicester County Council. One of the main efforts to do this is to improve parental confidence. We have specialist teams to support children in need and social support and early intervention. The early-use provision is particularly important. The aim is to try and prevent escalation towards specialist needs and maintain children with special needs in the mainstream setting. I would just point out, it's not just about cost-cutting. It's about providing better care for children with specific needs. And there's good evidence that is better in the long term. But having said that, you know, a number of children will require more specialist care. So the aim is to deliver savings of 0.7 million in 24/25 and rising to 3.3 million by 2029/30. So although this program is to try and arrest the deficit, it will not turn into a balanced budget without change to policy or central government funding. And as Catherine Johnson has pointed out, we need to keep our spending under very tight control and our reserves intact. Thank you, Jo. Thank you very much. I think for the benefit of people, the public watching this, it is worth pointing out that we are not in an anomalous position here. Every authority in the country that has responsibility for children's services is finding the pressures on the high needs block and indeed is running with deficits. So we are not unique. We are doing a lot, or our offices are doing an awful lot to try and control this spend, but with any demand-led service, we have to respond to the needs of the children who present to us. They're not widgets. They're small human beings and in some cases not so small as they get older. But their needs are paramount and our services have to respond to their individual needs. But nevertheless, we are working very hard with our schools, I know, to try and make appropriate, suitable, beneficial provision whilst at the same time recognizing that it is not a bottomless pit. There has to be controls over funding. So Councillor Smith, thank you for your explanation there and it is something we will all be keeping an eye on. Councillor Wise. I will be a lot briefer. The transport overspend, 756,000 of that is an overspend on commission transport with the majority relating to significant additional demand for SEN transport. It is directly related to the increase in the education, health and care plans, which often include a transport element to have the children attend a mainstream school. We are intending to have a look at efficiencies within that system to see if we can reduce that overspend. So we're not just accepting it, but again, looking at how we can more efficiently provide the service. Thank you. Any other cabinet members? Do you wish to sum up, Councillor Johnson, or are you content? The recommendations which have been proposed and seconded are that we note the out-term position subject to the external audit of the statutory statement of accounts for revenue budget, section 3 of the report, capital programs, section 4, and the dedicated school grant, section 3.6.1 to 3.6.5. That we consider the out-term position in regard to financial sustainability of the medium term and impact on the financial strategy and ability to deliver the corporate strategy in 24, 25 and future years. That we approve the recommended reserves movement per section 3.5.5, and that we note the position on the end of year treasury management report that all performance was within all indicators set, and in turn, the treasury management strategy remains valid for the year ahead. All those in favour? Thank you very much. We move on to item 7, the review of the data incident response policy, the data protection policy, the document retention and record disposal policy, and the reaper policy. We are recommended in this to approve the annual review of the four information governance policies, which is the umbrella term for all of those, and that we delegate the authority in future to the audit and risk committee to approve the annual review of these policies. Can I have a seconder so we can go into debate? Thank you, Councillor Johnson and Councillor Smith seconding. Councillor Johnson, I believe you're introducing these. Thank you, Chair. I will. As you've said, this report details the review of the council's information governance policies. The four policies are the data incident response policy, the data protection policy, the document retention and record disposal policy, and the regulation of Invested Creativity Powers Act policy. The reasons for the recommendations are that the current policies were approved by cabinet in April 2022 and are now due for review. The internal audit of information governance highlighted changes that should be made, and these have been incorporated into the revised versions of the policies, which can be found after this summary. The reviews have been an opportunity to simplify and streamline the policies. Cabinet approved the current versions of the information governance policies on 5 April 2022. An updated review has been carried out of each policy. The main changes that are proposed are highlighted in the following paragraph 2.1. Firstly, the data incident response policy, where there are changes in the data breaches and minor grammatical amendments. Secondly, the data protection policy, where the responsibilities may be made clearer for specific roles within the council and the inclusion and description for data protection and impact assessment. Records of management, processing, special categories of personal data, and expansion of lawfulness of the processing are now included. Thirdly, the regulation of Invested Creativity Powers Act, where changes have been recommended that after recommendations that should be emphasized within the policy and reiterated regularly to staff that personal profiles should not be used for council business, as it is incumbent on the council to ensure the safety and security of our staff. The dangers aligned to using personal social media accounts for business purposes, especially those of a covert nature, should not be underestimated, and all staff should be cognizant of their own personal online security and of the vulnerabilities attached to using any insecure or personal online platform. The policy has been amended to reflect this. There is an additional section entitled Social Media in Your Personal Life, and the online covert activity paragraph has incorporated the above recommendations. Finally, the document retention and record disposal policy, which reflects observations made by the internal information governance audit, and also talks about disposal where instructions have been added to ensure that the council undertakes due diligence to ensure that they are an appropriate contractor with practices which comply with data protection legislation and that the appropriate legal documentation is in place. I would like to move the recommendations at paragraph 1.2. Thank you. Does anybody have any comments on these? No? Nor do I. They do need, having said I've got no comments, I'm about to comment, they do need updating, clearly, and that's why they're before us, and that's what recommendation 1 is about. Recommendation 2 is about delegating this process to the audit and risk committee, and I think it's worthwhile mentioning that the audit and risk committee, as a statutory committee of this authority, is responsible for monitoring the annual reports related to each of these policies. And they are therefore in a better position to consider and reflect on any annual review, because they will have seen in detail any outcomes from the implementation of these policies, and therefore I think it's only right and proper that they should have authority to conduct the annual review of the policies in future. So that's why we're being asked that. So for a moment, in case anybody's jumping up and down wishing to speak, but clearly not, in which case our recommendations are 1, that we approve the councils for information governance policies, and 2, delegate the authority to the audit and risk committee to approve the annual reviews of these policies. That's been proposed and seconded. All those in favour, please. Thank you very much. Item 8. Do we have any items of urgent business? No. Therefore, can I advise everybody that the date of the next meeting is Tuesday, the 9th of July. Thank you very much. The meeting is closed at 29 minutes past 10. Thank you. [BLANK_AUDIO]

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